Memorandum in re Corpus juris
79
SIZE OF THE WORK. Based on the most careful calculations, our belief is
as this new work.
that the work (partly because an ade
each average a sale of more than 2,000
quate system of classification will make possible the avoidance of duplication of material in difl'erent parts, on which point
sets per year. Our belief is that the proposed American Corpus juris, within less than two years after it is placed on
see views of Mr. Justice Holmes quoted supra) can be produced in about twenty
the market, at least the entire five thousand sets, will be sold, or rather
volumes of one thousand pages each,
forty-five hundred sets,
including an index and table of cases.
being reserved for review and other special purposes. If so, the work would
Second (b). The Financing of the Project.
complete, as valuable or as well edited
It is said that they
five hundred
have more than paid for itself and left a considerable credit balance.
Planned on so gigantic a scale as that outlined, with an editorial staff such as we have in contemplation, the produc
We believe that far in excess of 2,000 sets of the proposed work would be
tion of the work would cost seemingly an enormous sum of money, yet in reality it is a trifling sum in comparison
produced as outlined above. And while
with the advantages to accrue to our
juridical system and to the nation. Calculations, based on careful compu
tation as to cost of material and all other expenses, including the probable amounts
necessary to be paid the various Edi torial Boards, members of the Advisory
absorbed annually by the profession if the work is not a digest in the sense the word is now used and if thoroughly done would probably not require extensive changes in the text from time to time, (probably very few after the second edi
tion) yet we believe it would be advisable to keep it up to date with a cumulative annual and with complete new editions at intervals of say every ten years.
Council and Board of Criticism, total approximately six hundred thousand dollars, which according to the estimate would enable five thousand sets to be produced, bound ready for delivery. The figures mentioned could be con
project is undoubtedly capable of being successfully financed. Indeed we believe
siderably reduced, yet it would be at the sacrifice of the quality of the edi
overstate the case when he said, “For tune and fame sufficient to satisfy any
'torial writers and the extent of the system of criticism; on the other hand, a further elaboration of the extensive
be the due reward of the man, or men, who would succeed in conferring such
system of editorial work proposed would
a boon.” You will recall also that Carter declared it “would be of priceless
of course increase the cost. Our figures include the advertising necessary to sell four thousand five hundred sets at the rather moderate price, for a work of such character, of $7.50 per volume, or
$150 a set. The large digests now on the
market sell complete for considerably more than the sum named for our work, yet it is not a debatable point that they
would in no sense be equal to or be as
On a purely commercial basis, the
our figures to be exceedingly conserva
tive and that James C. Carter did not
measure of avarice or ambition would
'value,"——that “such a work, well exe cuted, would be the vade mecum of every
lawyer and every Judge"; that “It would be the one indispensable tool of his art.” Judge Staake has well said : “It is pitiable that the question of financing the project should have to be discussed."
But it must.
There are two general
